The present invention relates to systems for shredding materials and, more particularly, to shear shredders in which cutting elements reduce material size.
Shear shredders are well known and are commonly used to reduce material size so that the overall volume of material is reduced for storage or transportation, or so that particle size of the material is reduced to promote burning or combustion of the material in an incinerator or kiln. The most common application for shear shredders is in the field of waste disposal; shear shredders are particularly effective in reducing such items as rubber vehicle tires to chip sizes which promote the burning of the tire material.
A typical shear shredding system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,363 and includes a support frame which has an open top and bottom and houses a pair of shredder blade assemblies. Each shredder blade assembly includes a central shaft and a plurality of individual, disk-shaped cutter elements. The cutter elements are spaced apart from each other on the shaft so that a pair of cutter assemblies may be positioned so that the cutter elements mesh with each other. The shredder blade assemblies are counter-rotated relative to each other by a single drive motor and gearbox.
Such shredder systems include a feed hopper which is mounted on top of the housing and communicates with the open top of the support frame. The feed hopper includes a feed ram which is protected within the hopper by its own housing and includes a ram face which is reciprocated toward and away from the open top of the support frame and cutting elements by a double-acting cylinder.
It is typical with all such shredder systems that the cutter assemblies are difficult to insert and remove for maintenance, which results in relatively long periods of down time. Such down time subtracts from the productivity of the shear shredder in processing waste material. Another disadvantage with presently-known shear shredder systems is that the systems must be custom-designed for a particular application. That is, the major components, such as the cutter assemblies, support bearings, drive motors and housing walls cannot be interchanged and reassembled to form shear shredders of different configurations.
Accordingly, there is a need for a shear shredder design in which components, such as the shear cutter assemblies, can be removed and inserted in the field with a minimum of down time. Further, there is a need for a shear shredder having a feed ram which collapses when not in use to provide a maximum opening to the cutter elements. There is also a need for a shear shredder which is of modular construction such that an inventory of components can be maintained to be assembled into a number of different shredder configurations.
The present invention is a modular shear shredder in which the cutter elements are mounted on shear cartridges which can be inserted and removed from the shredder housing sidewardly by moving a side wall section, thereby eliminating the need for removal or disassembly of bearings, gear drives or the feed hopper. The shear cartridge includes a shaft which supports a plurality of cutter elements that are held in position by end caps which are mounted on the ends of the shaft. The end caps have flat end surfaces which are adapted to be connected to either support bearings or drive motors. Consequently, there is no need to provide an inventory of specialized end caps which are needed for particular types of connections.
The shear cartridges are mounted within a support frame having opposing, removable side walls and removable end walls. The side walls are shaped such that the shear cartridges are insertable and removable through the openings formed by the removal of the side walls. The shear cartridges are connected either to drive motor shafts or support bearings mounted on the support frame end walls and are suspended between the motors and/or bearings. Accordingly, removal of the shear cartridges is accomplished by removal of the side wall and subsequent disengagement of the shear cartridge from the bearings and/or drive motors to which it is attached.
The end walls are modular and are shaped to support either support bearings or hydraulic drive motors. Consequently, a shear shredder having a pair of meshing shear cartridges can be designed such that a pair of drive motors drives each shear cartridge (making four drive motors for the system), or such that each shear cartridge is driven by a single drive motor at one end and is supported by a support bearing at the opposite end.
In the preferred embodiment, each shear cartridge of a dual cartridge system is driven by a pair of hydraulic drive motors. The hydraulic drive motors are each driven by a single, dedicated hydraulic pump. A pair of electric motors drives the pumps and the pumps are arranged such that each motor drives two pumps, and each of the pumps driven by a given motor is connected to a hydraulic drive motor on a different cartridge. With such an arrangement, should one shear cartridge become immobilized due to a jam, the entire motive force of the electric drive motors which power the pumps is dedicated to the single jammed shear cartridge so that the extra power operates to free the jam.
Also in the preferred embodiment, the removable side walls each support a plurality of comb elements which are spaced to mesh with the cutter elements of a shear cartridge. Accordingly, removal of the side wall disengages the comb elements from the cutter elements on a shear cartridge, thereby facilitating the replacement of the shear cartridge as well as the replacement of the comb elements. The comb elements are easily removable from the side wall on which they are mounted.
The preferred embodiment of the modular shear shredder includes a feed hopper having a feed ram mounted within the hopper. The feed ram includes a double-acting cylinder which advances and retracts the ram relative to the open top of the support frame, a ram face which is pivotally attached to the cylinder, and a second cylinder which pivots the ram face to an operative position, where it is positioned to urge material in the hopper toward the shear cartridges, or to a collapsed position in which the ram face is pivoted against the adjacent side wall of the hopper. The ram face includes a ram face shield which is pivotally attached to the ram face and extends upwardly to be pivotally attached to a housing which encloses the second cylinder which pivots the ram face. This face shield prevents material within the hopper from falling behind the ram face. The ram face, ram face cylinder and ram face cylinder housing are all mounted on a slide plate which is positioned adjacent to the side wall of the hopper. The primary cylinder, which advances the ram face, is mounted outside the hopper and therefore is easily accessible for maintenance and replacement.
Although described as a shear shredding apparatus, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the novel aspects of the present invention apply to other material processing apparatuses having a pair of co-acting, substantially parallel, counter-rotating rotor assemblies, such as briquetting apparatuses, grinding apparatuses and the like. In particular, it will be a conventional exercise for those of ordinary skill in the art to replace the shear cartridges with counter-rotating, co-acting briquette rolls, grinding rolls and the like.
The present invention also provides a modular material processing apparatus which comprises a housing including a frame, the frame defining a pair of oppositely facing lateral ends and a pair of oppositely facing longitudinal sides; a pair of co-acting, substantially parallel, counter-rotating roller assemblies, each of the roller assemblies including a substantially cylindrical, material processing roller member mounted to a rotating shaft extending substantially parallel with the longitudinal sides; a first support assembly mounted to one of the lateral ends of the frame, the first support assembly including a fixed support and an adjustable support, each of the fixed and adjustable supports supporting a corresponding one of the roller assemblies; and a second support assembly mounted to the other one of the lateral ends of the frame, the second support assembly including a fixed support and an adjustable support, each of the fixed and adjustable supports supporting a corresponding one of the roller assemblies. Each of the first and second support assemblies include a fixed support block retaining the fixed support; an adjustable support block retaining the adjustable support and being laterally slidable with respect to the fixed support block; a shim positioned on a lateral side of the adjustable support block, between the adjustable support block and a fixed member of the support assembly; and a lock for securing the adjustable support block and shim to the fixed member during normal operation of the material processing apparatus. Accordingly, the lateral distance between the fixed support and the lateral support on each of the first and second support assemblies may be adjusted by changing the thickness of the shim.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a modular material processing apparatus having a roller member which can be attached and removed with a minimum of down time; a modular material processing apparatus having removable side walls to facilitate replacement of roller members; a modular material processing apparatus having modular end walls are adapt to support either support bearings or hydraulic drive motors; a modular material processing apparatus having a hydraulic drive system in which the power of the hydraulic motors is fully devoted to a jammed roller member; a modular material processing apparatus having a feed hopper with a feed ram which collapses to maximize the feed hopper opening when the ram is not in use; a modular material processing apparatus providing simple and secure adjustment of the distance between the counter-rotating, material processing roller members; a modular material processing apparatus which is rugged in construction; and a modular material processing apparatus which is made of modular components that can be assembled in a variety of configurations.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, the accompanying drawing and the appended claims.